Of Pumpkins and Punches
by FaramirsBlessing
Summary: Elliot hates art class, but is intrigued when he learns about Halloween and the tradition of carving pumpkins Leo learned about while he lived in Sablier. Carvings and fist fights occur. Pure fluff. Rated T for language


**Hi everybody! I'm sorry I haven't published anything for ages- I'm super embarrassed. I was in and out of the hospital for a long time and then I started college and everything's just been really hectic. But I haven't stopped writing, so never fear! Here's a little Pandora Hearts Halloween vignette to fulfill a promise and console my hearts.**

 **Pandora Hearts only belongs to the amazing Mochizuki. I am only playing in the sandbox.**

* * *

Elliot stood behind the paint-splattered table in the art classroom, chin propped up on his elbows, a bored look on his face. He hated art- painting and sculpting and all that other shit was not something he was particularly good at. The Nightrays were made for music. But fine art was a required course at Lutwidge, so here Elliot was. He had the nimble fingers of an artist, his teacher gushed, but those were for playing piano. They failed at the delicate brushstrokes that were needed to paint inside the lines, and Elliot couldn't even do that, much to his embarrassment. His only consolation was that Leo sucked even more than he did. He obviously couldn't see past his thick, clouded glasses and waterfall of black hair, so his art was choppy and blotchy. The only thing that got Elliot through the daily art class was mocking Leo's art skills, and Leo couldn't retaliate, since the oil paint they used in class was very expensive and stained everything. So, instead of the book that would usually be sent flying his way if they were anywhere else, Elliot would only get death glares and occasional threats that Leo muttered under his breath.

Elliot sighed, and rolled his shirt sleeves up, tossing a spattered blue smock over his uniform. Leo, next to him, did the same, then pulled some of his hair into a small ponytail that rested at the back of his neck. Elliot snickered.

"You look like an idiot," he said, nudging Leo with his elbow. "Why do you put your hair up like that?"

"So it doesn't get in the paint, you dumbass," Leo answered, adjusting the band with his fingers, shoving loose strands back into the ponytail. He turned to his friend. "Unless you'd like me following you around for the rest of the day with colored hair?"

A brief image of Leo's black hair dipped in bright red paint made Elliot smile, before he shook the thought away. He blinked himself out of the thought of pranking Leo and dyeing his hair, and instead turned to his valet, pulling at his ponytail. Leo grimaced and shooed Elliot away.

"You would look pretty stupid," the Nightray said. "Not that you don't look stupid as it is."

"Hey-!"

Leo was interrupted as the teacher, Ms. Autumns, entered the room, clapping her hands to get the students' attention.

"Hello, hello!" the short auburn chirped, her dirty fingers sweeping back her waist-length hair. "It's good to see you all again, children! It's been so long!"

"It's been less than twenty four hours," Elliot muttered and Leo elbowed him hard. Elliot bit his lip.

"Today is Friday and I thought that instead of working with pastels like we usually do, we'd do something fun."

Elliot groaned silently. His teacher's definition of "fun" was awful- last time it'd been a visual interpretation of the color white. Elliot had been pissed for weeks. Who the fuck cared about the color white? Who actually cared?

"Do you all know what holiday is coming up?" she asked.

Everyone was silent and the teacher looked around expectantly, her comically large green eyes huge with expectation. After a moment, Leo raised his hand. As Ms. Autumns called on him, she looked overjoyed.

"Leo!" she said. "Tell us!"

"It's Halloween tomorrow," Elliot's friend said, and everyone in the classroom blinked in confusion.

 _What the hell is Halloween?_

"Can you tell us about Halloween, Leo? What it is?"

"It's a day that most of the city celebrates. It originally began as a way to keep demons away, but now it's just a time in which the children dress up like witches and werewolves, going from house to house to get candy. They call it trick-or-treating." Leo's face lit up. "And there are decorations everywhere- skeletons and canvas ghosts. It's really fun."

The teacher was smiling and the rest of the class looked amazed at this celebration they had never heard of before. It was no wonder- they were all nobles or aristocrats- city celebrations were not something they were privy to. But they all seemed surprised (and, in Elliot's case, a little pissed,) to have been missing out on what sounded like such a fun party.

"Thank you, Leo," the art teacher smiled, then motioned back to the class. "Like Leo said, decorations are everywhere in the city during Halloween and it is a very important tradition. When I was a girl, my favorite activity was carving pumpkins. So. . ." An assistant teacher rolled in a cart filled with the squat orange vegetables, enough for every person in the class. "We're going to carve pumpkins today!"

Leo grinned, but everyone else looked confused. They were going to cut apart pumpkins? What practical use was that for a noble?

A girl raised her hand.

"Ms. Autumns," she said, her lip curled up, "I don't want to get my hands on a dirty vegetable. Can I just allow my valet to do it?"

Ms. Autumns struggled to bite back a remark and Elliot saw how pissed she was underneath her calm and happy facade.

"No, Miss Sanders," she said, "you have to do this assignment in order to get a passing grade."

Lizzy Sanders, a sixteen year old that Elliot only vaguely knew, dropped her hand with a pout. Ms. Autumns smiled again and she beckoned everyone forward, urging them to grab a pumpkin.

Five minutes later, everyone had a round, bright orange pumpkin in front of them. Elliot's was perfect- gorgeous and perfectly shaped, smooth and shiny. Contrarily, Leo's was a disaster. It was deformed and covered in layers of dirt and warts, and every time Leo tried to straighten it, it tried to roll away from him. Elliot snickered and Leo slapped him.

"Shut up," he said. "It has character."

"Is that what you call it?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

Elliot shrugged and Ms. Autumns called for attention.

"All the carving tools, knives, and templates are over here on this table, children. Please only take one of each so everyone has the opportunity to carve their own pumpkin. And please use our traditional safety rules- I really don't want any accidents today." She clapped her hands and a huge smile crossed her face. "All righty then, go for it!"

The steps to carving a pumpkin- a task most of the students had never done- were printed out neatly on the chalkboard, and Ms. Autumns would wander around the classroom, helping kids out.

Elliot glanced up at the board after washing his pumpkin clean under the sink.

 _Step 1: Empty your pumpkin._

Elliot frowned down at Leo.

""Empty your pumpkin?" he asked. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Disembowel it," Leo said, voice totally deadpan as he washed his own pumpkin. Elliot blinked.

"What."

"Disembowel it," Leo repeated. "You know, hollow it out."

"You could have just said that," Elliot said, grabbing a knife and beginning to cut off the top of the pumpkin. "You don't need to use such graphic imagery."

Leo rolled his eyes and grabbed Elliot's wrist, helping him guide the knife correctly through the orange skin of the vegetable.

"Don't do it like that," he said, "make sure you have room to put the top back on."

"Why the hell would I put the top back on?"

"So when you out a candle in it, the light only comes out through the spaces you carved."

"We're putting candles in this?!"

Leo nodded, lifting the top of Elliot's pumpkin off.

"Yep. It's really cool, I promise."

"It sounds dangerous."

"You're such a baby. Calm down. It's not like the pumpkin's gonna become a ball of fire."

"It's not?" Elliot sounded dubious.

"No, you dumbass." He pried the knife from Elliot's fingers, handing him a shovel-like object. Elliot blinked down at it.

"What is this?" he asked.

"It'll help you scoop out the pumpkin." Leo motioned Elliot forward as he grabbed his own knife and began sawing off the top. When he looked up again, Elliot was still staring blankly at his pumpkin. "Go for it, Elliot."

"I don't want to stick my hand in that thing," Elliot objected, his lip curling up in disgust. "That looks revolting."

Leo huffed in annoyance and impatience, then, without warning, grabbed Elliot's hand and shoved it inside the pumpkin. Elliot yelped in surprise as the cold, stringy guts of the pumpkin slid against his slim fingers and palm.

"UGH!" he screamed. "LEO!"

Everyone in the class stopped what they were doing to turn and stare and Elliot Nightray, elbow deep in a pumpkin, his valet smirking at his side. Ms. Autumns rushed over, alarmed by Elliot's cry.

"Are you all right, Mr. Nightray?"

Elliot wrenched his arm out of his pumpkin, wiping his hand on his apron.

"I'm fine, Ms. Autumns," he snapped, barely maintaining his composure. "My valet was just being. . . . _a jackass, a dick, an ass. . ._ annoying," he said aloud. "Annoying."

"Oh. Well, then. Leo, treat Elliot kindly. And, Mr. Nightray, please refrain from screaming in my class." She walked away and Elliot whirled on his friend.

"What the hell, Leo? What was that for?"

"I was getting you used to the texture of the pumpkin. It's better if you do it all at once."

"So you just jammed my entire hand in?!"

"Yes."

Elliot groaned in frustration, a hiss escaping from his ground together teeth. As Leo turned back to his own pumpkin, no longer paying any attention to Elliot, the Nightray dipped his hand back into his pumpkin and grabbed a fistful of pumpkin guts.

Then he launched it straight into Leo's face.

Leo cried out in alarm, in his surprise dropping his own pumpkin onto the floor, where it crashed and fell to pieces. He turned slowly to Elliot, beyond pissed, but Elliot couldn't take him seriously.

The valet had stringy pieces of pumpkin scattered all over his hair, pumpkin seeds littering all the black. More lengths of it were plastered to the thick lenses of his glasses, and his face shone with pumpkin juice. One piece of pumpkin was stuck to his lip, lending his scowl a humorous tilt.

Elliot doubled over in laughter.

"You look like an idiot!" he gasped, clutching his sides. "Ah, Leo, you-"

His vision flashed white.

"Fuck!" Elliot cried, stumbling back from Leo, blood running from his nose. "What was that for?!"

"What do you think it was for, jackass? You ruined my pumpkin and covered me in guts!"

"It was a joke!" He wiped the blood from under his nose, grimacing in pain. "You didn't need to punch me!"

"It wasn't funny!" Leo got out of his seat, tossing strings of pumpkin off his glasses. "You need to grow up!"

"Don't tell me what to do, Leo!" Elliot yelled, his face a burning red. He vaguely heard the art teacher fluttering anxiously behind him and the other students laughing and cheering, but he couldn't be bothered to care. He just wiped the blood from his face again, then punched Leo hard in the cheek.

Elliot and Leo were in their dorm, Elliot with a sticking plaster over his nose, Leo cradling an ice pack against his rapidly bruising cheek.

"We're idiots," Leo said, tossing his head back against his pillow.

"You're more of an idiot," Elliot countered and Leo just sighed.

"Elliot. . . ."

"Ugh. Fine, you're right! We're both stupid."

Leo pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"We got ourselves kicked out of class and now we don't have any pumpkins."

Elliot frowned at him. Once he thought about it, he was sure Leo wouldn't have punched him if his pumpkin hadn't been broken.

"Why was that pumpkin so important to you? It's not like it mattered."

"It mattered to me, Elliot," Leo retorted, his voice quiet.

Elliot cast his piercing blue eyes full on Leo, confused.

"Why? I don't understand."

Leo sighed.

"I've made them every year for as long as I can remember. My mom and I would carve one and leave it on our tiny porch, and, after she died, I would always use my spare money from Fianna's House to buy a pumpkin." A reminiscent smile crossed his face. "I couldn't afford a big one, but all the kids were so happy to carve it with me. Then we'd leave it out in the garden and light it up every night, even after Halloween. We'd name them too."

"Really?" Elliot asked. "Like what?"

"Last year it was Salim," Leo answered. "The year before that was Bobby John."

Elliot found a grin growing on his face, but he just shrugged, breaking eye contact with Leo.

"Well, if you've made a pumpkin every year for your entire life," he said, his voice bored and neutral, "then it seems like that we'll have to make one this year too."

"Really?" Leo was bright and excited.

"Yeah, sure." Elliot picked at the bandage across his nose, then got to his feet and grabbed his wallet. He shoved it in his pocket, then crossed to the door. "Let's go."

"Go where?"

"To the market, obviously," Elliot replied with an eye roll. "To get the best pumpkin possible."

Leo rushed out the door after him, a ridiculously huge smile across his face.

The next day- Halloween- there were two decent sized pumpkins sitting on the windowsill of Elliot and Leo's room, one carved expertly with the Nightray cross, the other a simple carving of a cat. In the room behind the lit pumpkins, you could see two boys, in full costume of knight and mummy, arguing about how much candy to hand out to the kids in Fianna's House.

* * *

 **Happy (belated) Halloween!**


End file.
